January 23, 2007

Excel is annoying to use (you can’t edit a cell without using the mouse), and OpenOffice still needs X11 to run (and don’t get me started on that set up guide). There has to be a better spreadsheet application for Mac OS X … doesn’t there? Or is the Mac software community petrified that Apple are about to release that spreadsheet product that’s been rumoured for years now?

January 4, 2007

Download DOSBox and Impulse Tracker. DOSBox emulates the DOS operating system and some common hardware, including the SoundBlaster 16 and Gravis UltraSound sound cards.

Unzip Impulse Tracker and put it inside an otherwise empty folder. I created a folder named DOS inside my home directory, then copied Impulse Tracker into another directory inside of that.

Install and run DOSBox. Installation is as simple as copying DOSBox.app into your Applications folder.

Once DOSBox has fired up, you’ll need to mount a directory on your hard disk as your C drive. To do this, type MOUNT C /Users/craiga/DOS into DOSBox (where /Users/craiga/DOS is a folder that contains Impulse Tracker).

Switch to the C drive by typing C:, then fire up Impulse Tracker using the command line IT s7. This will force Impulse Tracker to use the emulated Gravis UltraSound (there seems to be some trouble with the emulated SoundBlaster 16).

Impulse Tracker will now be running and will be usable, though playback will be a little jumpy. To make it smoother, switch to full-screen mode by hitting Command-Option-Shift-Return. To switch back to a windowed view, use that same key combination.

September 21, 2006

Instead of designing theme parks, this sim lets you design hamburgers. How does it go again? “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese…” Burger sims are huge in Americana-obsessed Japan, and after tinkering with Burger Burger, we’re inclined to see why. Coming up with your own creation to rival the Big Mac or McTeriyaki while beating your competitors into a ketchup-splattered pulp is a right laugh. Players can customise everything on their menu, hire pre-pubescent staff, select the site for their burger empire and even choose novelty items to keep the kids happy. Just don’t dream of running some ill-conceived Monopoly competition with last year’s tickets…

June 9, 2006

"Doukutsu Monogatari" (that's "Cave Story" in English) is a side-scrolling action adventure game that's very reminisient of games like Castlevania and Metroid, right down to the NES-era graphics and sound.

You start out in a cave, by yourself, with no idea who you are or what to do. Pretty soon you figure out how to get out of the room and enter a town. In this town, you find out you're in the strange world of the Mimigas and they need your help to rescue one of their own.

As far as I can tell, it was developed years ago by a Japanese group calling themselves Studio Pixel and made available for free. Another group translated the game into English, and now it enjoys a huge cult following — so huge, in fact, that a company called Variant Interactive is currently working on a sequel for the PSP.

May 31, 2006

Over the past year, Mum and Dad have collected the components of a pretty good home theatre system. They've got a massive 106cm widescreen plasma television and they've got a surround sound system, but I've got no idea how to hook the two of them up.

Their DVD player and their television have the standard left and right RCA audio outputs, but the sound system has five RCA inputs – front left, front right, back left, back right, and the subwoofer. There may even be another input for a small speaker in the middle.

How is this supposed to work? Is there an amplifier that takes the two audio signals, processes them and outputs five? Is the DVD player or television supposed to have more outputs? I can't imagine that a $2600 television would be lacking such a feature, but I guess it's possible.

April 18, 2006

I've put a new message board up on the Look Who's Toxic web site. I'm planning on applying a theme to it to make it look like our actual web site and to remove all the guff about reviewing membership applications, but for now it's using Vanilla's default theme.